BATON ROUGE — Rapper NBA Youngboy says he will plead guilty to a federal weapons charge on the condition that the case be transferred from Louisiana to Utah, where he has been living on house arrest and faces state charges alleging he ran a prescription drug fraud ring.

In court documents filed last Wednesday, the rapper waived his right to a trial in Baton Rouge. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick closed the Louisiana case and moved jurisdiction to the federal court in Salt Lake City, but his case has not come up yet in court there.

A stay had been pending in the case as lawyers argue over whether all felons should be barred from possessing firearms. Questions surround whether the Constitution allows permanently removing a person’s gun rights.

The rapper, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, faces up to 10 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s office has said. Prosecutors allege the rapper possessed a handgun while shooting a music video in the city in 2020.

Until April, Gaulden had been living in Utah on house arrest while awaiting his Louisiana trial. He was arrested that month and charged with defrauding pharmacies to obtain doses of a codeine-laden cough suppressant. 

In Cache County Court, Gaulden was accused of posing as a doctor to obtain drugs.